technicalities

December 06, 2008

My latest poston Religion Dispatches discusses last week's news story about an ex-Scientologist who was shot dead at the Church's Celebrity Centre in Hollywood when he showed up there with two samurai swords and started threatening visitors.

As one would expect, Anonymous's message boards are gathering lots of information on the story. As one would also expect, they've given him a meme-ish name: "Epic Sword Guy."

November 05, 2008

In lieu of liveblogging or some such, Religion Dispatches solicited meditations on the election from their regular contributors, and my entry, entitled "No Moral Surrender," is here. It's all about Republican (and evangelical) moral cynicism. I almost tied the piece into SF as a providential guide, which meshes well with Obama's future-building vision, but I knew they wanted brevity, and that kind of pontificating would have pushed it close to thousand-word-essay territory, so I left it out.

Pretty much the only thing that didn't go swimmingly yesterday is that California seems poised to pass Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage in the state. The only silver lining on that cloud is that Orson Scott Card (probably) won't be leading an armed rebellion anytime soon.

October 29, 2008

The latest Republican attempt at scaremongering John McCain into the White House co-opts the form of science fiction. Last week Focus on the Family issued a 16-page piece of dystopian fiction, a letter from "A Christian from 2012" detailing society's descent into chaos following 4 years of an Obama presidency. From terrorist attacks the end of the Boy Scouts, FotF's letter paints a ludicrous picture with the specific intention of getting young evangelicals, many of whom support Obama, to change their votes. The letter is a ham-fisted attempt at the genre of dystopian SF—a genre that has been pretty solidly left-wing since its inception. Here are just a few liberal dystopias that are both more plausible and better-written than the 2012 letter.

Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, by Octavia Butler

Following a broad economic collapse caused by a laissez-faire government (sound familiar?), America has descended into total anarchy. The first volume depicts some of the chaos—the middle class living in walled forts; roving gangs of anarchists. In the second volume, a reactionary movement called Christian America promises a return to order—one that requires concentration camps for "heathens" like the novel's agrarian protagonists. Maybe it's just me, but I find it much easier to believe Christian America as an heir of Focus on the Family than the 2012 letter's world as an heir of Obama.

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

In Huxley's definitive dystopia, capitalism is no longer just an economic system, it's an object of worship (with Henry Ford standing in for God). In 1958, Huxley wrote Brave New World Revisited, a book of essays that showed further pessimism about the world's regression to assembly-line living

The prophecies I made in 1931 are coming true much sooner than I thought they would... In the West, it is true, individual men and women still enjoy a large measure of freedom. But even in those countries that have a tradition of democratic government, this freedom and even the desire for this freedom seem to be on the wane.

V for Vendetta, by Alan Moore and David Lloyd

I don't think I can say anything better than what Alan Moore wrote in his 1988 introduction to this story:

Naiveté can also be detected in my supposition that it would take something as melodramatic as a near-miss nuclear conflict to nudge England towards fascism... It's 1988 now. Margaret Thatcher is entering her third term of office and talking confidently of an unbroken Conservative leadership well into the next century... The tabloid press are circulating the idea of concentration camps for persons with AIDS. The new riot police wear black visors, as do their horses, and their vans have rotating video cameras mounted on top. The government has expressed a desire to eradicate homosexuality, even as an abstract concept, and one can only speculate as to which minority will be the next legislated against. I'm thinking of taking my family and getting out of this country soon, sometime over the next couple of years. It's cold and it's mean spirited and I don't like it here anymore.

Thankfully Thatcher's prediction of permanent Conservative leadership didn't come true, and Alan Moore still lives in Northampton. The 2006 film version wisely does away with the nuclear war angle, instead depicting England's adoption of a Bush-style government as the cause of all the trouble.

Southland Tales, written and directed by Richard Kelly

In Richard Kelly's whacked-out apocalypse, the fate of the world depends on the result of a presidential election. Southland Tales isn't afraid to get specific in naming the affiliations of its bogeymen: Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Bobby Frost is the head of US-Ident, the military contractor that won the task of strengthening and streamlining the surveillance state. In this film, Republican victory means solidifying the bond between evil government and evil business, which somehow opens a black hole above Los Angeles. Or something. It's hard to follow, but one thing is clear: Richard Kelly doesn't like Republicans.

The Tower, by the Legendary Pink Dots

British artists really didn't like Margaret Thatcher, did they? The Tower is a tour-de-force concept album about the bleak direction in which the Conservatives were leading the country. Against a synth-driven background of demented circus music, the lyrics are a litany of brutality, repression, and intolerance. Unlike Alan Moore, the Dots weren't sticking around to see how things turned out; they packed their bags and moved to the Netherlands soon after the album was released. The final song on the album, "Tower Five," is a less-than-fond farewell: "You wanted easy answers / You want a tidy end / Don't you know you've got a lot to answer for? / You wanted shining heroes. / You wanted sparkling knights / BUT THEY'RE GONE. / You chose your grave. / Lie there." [Lyrics and samples here.]

Children of Men, co-written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón

Children of Men's Britain has become a police state as a result of anti-terrorist and anti-immigrant paranoia. As in the film version of V For Vendetta, it's a direct result of adopting George W. Bush-style policies, and the film is rife with images intended to remind us of American policy: Guantanamo-style detainees held in cages, media obsession with "illegal immigrants," and, most chillingly, the words "Homeland Security" above the entrance to a bleak refugee camp.

The Book of Revelation, by John of Patmos

AsI'velongargued, John's Apocalypse is a revolutionary book that's been co-opted, in recent years, by reactionaries. Its most moving passage describes the destruction of a Babylon, depicted in Rev. 18 as a proto-capitalist dystopia: "The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud, 'Alas, alas, the great city, clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls! For in one hour all this wealth has been laid waste!'" (Rev 18:15-17) How's that for a religious picture of a world on the brink of collapse?

October 16, 2008

My latest post on Religion Dispatches a quick one about some odd posters that have been turning up in major metropolitan areas lately that say things like this:

Pray in mind a few minut a dayGo churchMary Mary Mary beautiful gorgeous MaryThe Devil makes bats of 2 million people children every year. In AmericaYou must keep the Ten CommandmentsListen Christ Radio 56 AM and Christ will protect yous

While you're there, check out the current lead article, "The Kids are Religious Right," about how the youth pro-life movement uses punk to spread its message. It's not only a great article, it's by Justin Philpot, who is a good friend of mine. It's based on his Masters' thesis, so you know it's smart.

July 24, 2008

There's a new book about religion on the block: James A. Herrick's Scientific Mythologies: How Science and Science Fiction Forge New Religious Beliefs. James McGrath has reviewed it at Exploring Our Matrix, and it doesn't sound good. Apparently it's all based on the premise that science, and science fiction, are inherently opposed to Christianity. McGrath's review is long, but well worth reading. When you're done, you may want to check out my book, The Gospel According to Science Fiction, as an open-minded chaser that doesn't, y'know, vilify the whole genre, or treat Christianity as monolithic. Just sayin'.

Jason Ellis reports from the Science Fiction Research Association conference, where Doug Davis gave a presentation entitled "God as Science Fiction, Science Fiction as God: Christian Fabulation for American Technoculture."

A few months ago there was a conference in Boston entitled "Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books & Graphic Novels." They're publishing a book, and they've put out a call for (additional) papers. You've got two weeks: go!

Another CFP for a conference in Chicago entitled "Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond." They're specifically requesting papers on Doctor Who, and the CFP has a spiritual tone: "The Doctor is clearly a man of science, yet his function on the show is often God like, with occasional explicit references to him as a Christ-figure. How does the Doctor's dual role comment on ... the uneasy relationship between Western empiricism and theological mysticism?" Again, you've got two weeks, so get to work, Who scholars.

This one's over a year old, but I like it. In One Ear... offers some wry advice for comics writers who want to put religion in their stories: "Your villain can be excessively religious and talk about God all the time. Religion is a great shorthand to tell your readers,'This person is an evil and hate filled bigot!' This is particularly effective if you are writing an X-Book for Marvel."

I've been spending the last few days getting caught up on Achewood, the greatest webcomic of all time. In a strip from early March, preschool-aged otter Phillippe asks: "If Jesus was a dog, would he wear a cape and walk on two legs?" Yes, Phillippe. Yes, he most certainly would.

July 10, 2008

Discworld creator and longtime atheist/agnostic/what have you Terry Pratchett caused a bit of a stir a few weeks ago when he made a comment in an interview that suggested that he now believes in God. In an essay for the Daily Mail, he clears up what he meant. Ignore the headline, it kind of misses the point, which is a bit Schleiermacherian.

"For a moment, the world had felt at peace. Where did it come from?

"Me, actually - the part of all of us that, in my case, caused me to stand in awe the first time I heard Thomas Tallis's Spem In Alium, and the elation I felt on a walk one day last February, when the light of the setting sun turned a ploughed field into shocking pink; I believe it's what Abraham felt on the mountain and Einstein did when it turned out that E=mc2.

"It's that moment, that brief epiphany when the universe opens up and shows us something, and in that instant we get just a sense of an order greater than Heaven and, as yet at least, beyond the grasp of Stephen Hawking. It doesn't require worship, but, I think, rewards intelligence, observation and enquiring minds.

"I don't think I've found God, but I may have seen where gods come from."

June 29, 2008

Get Religion reports on an odd wrinkle in the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life's big ol' survey. You may have heard about this survey's results indicating that atheism is the fastest-growing faith in America. But a closer look at the statistics reveals a real oddity: fifty-seven percent of self-identified agnostics and twenty-one percent of self-identified atheists answered "yes" to the question, "Do you believe in God or a universal spirit?" About the same number said they pray. Eight percent of atheists were "absolutely certain" that God does exist. Which brings us to the title above: What the heck does "atheism" mean, then?

Well, Steve Waldman at Beliefnet theorizes that this means that "Atheism has become a cultural designation, rather than a theological statement. Some are likely declaring themselves atheists as a statement of hostility to organized religion, rather than to God." Which sounds plausible to me.

Get Religion shares some rightful criticism of the survey's question phrasing, methodology, and general tendency to overreach. (I had some similar thoughts, in the context of a bigger criticism of the Atlantic Monthly's religion reporting, in a post for Religion Dispatches a couple months ago.) But nevertheless, there's something odd going on in those numbers-- something that should make anyone pause and think about what the word "atheist" really means in today's culture.

June 27, 2008

My post this week at Religion Dispatches is about the accusation (if that's the right word) that Obama is a "secret Muslim," plus new evidence that he might, in fact, be a "secret Hindu."

"According to the Times of India, a group of supporters in New Delhi have sent Obama a two-foot, gold-plated statue of the monkey god Hanuman. According to Indian politician Brijmohan Bhama, “Obama has deep faith in Lord Hanuman and that is why we are presenting an idol of Hanuman to him.” The apparent source of this pronouncement of Obama’s newly-discovered faith is this photo from Time magazine, which shows a collection of lucky charms Obama carries with him, including a small Hanuman charm. They mean well, to be sure, but it’s another example of the world’s inability to let Obama define his own faith. Say what you want—we know what you REALLY believe."

June 17, 2008

My Religion Dispatches piece on Anonymous, the Internet-based group that's been protesting the Church of Scientology, has been updated with a report on last weekend's demonstration in New York.

One protester was a former member of the Office of Special Affairs—the
intelligence wing of the Church of Scientology. There, he conducted
investigations of psychiatrists the Church considered enemies. In one
case, he was sent to Florida to take surveillance photographs of a
psychiatrist in an effort to prove that he was a child molester. “I was
told that psychiatrists were enemies of the church because they put
children on medications under which they may be molested or abused…
They’re criminals, and I was investigating criminals, I was told.” A
Mormon before joining the Church, he was told that he would have to
abandon his faith to advance: “They told me that being involved in
Scientology training would take up too much of my time to continue
being a Mormon.” He immediately returned to Mormonism, which helped him
recover from his time as a Scientologist: “I felt I had to get the dirt
off of me. You come out of Scientology feeling really dirty…
Scientology deprived me of God. Religion is supposed to take you closer
to your creator… The problem with Scientology is that it’s sociopathic.
It teaches you to believe that you are God."